Postoperative Re-stenosis of the Carotid – A Case for Reoperation or Endovascular Management?

Overview

The aim of this work was to assess frequency rates of re-stenoses following surgical or endovasular treatment of re-stenoses after primary endarterectomies of the carotid artery, taking into consideration concomitant disorders and the contralateral findings. Another objective was to assess differences in peroperative and postoperative complications frequency rates. The retrospective study included patients undergoing vascular surgery during a seven-year period. The study revealed that repetitive restenoses were statistically significantly (3×) more frequent in cases of the endovascular management compared to that in re-operations (p = 0.015). In the repetitive re-stenoses patients, the rate of the contralateral carotid affection was significantly higher (93.8%, p = 0.05) and also the rate of the contralateral artery obliteration was higher (43.8%, p = 0.05). The highest frequency rates of the repetitive carotid re-stenosis was in patients with a concomitant affection of the contralateral artery. Surgical management of the repetitive re-stenosis of the carotid artery following its primary surgical management showed better results than the endovascular management.

Key words:
re-stenosis – a. carotis – endarterectomy – endovascular – PTA